LDV to launch Ford Ranger rival next year

Chinese commercial manufacturer LDV has confirmed it will unveil an all-new utility next month before rolling out the new model in Australia around the middle of next year.

Due to be shown in full at the Guangzhou International Automobile Exhibition on November 20, the ute will feature petrol and diesel engines and will be available across several body styles, LDV’s parent company SAIC Automotive confirmed this week.

Crucially, it will also have a five-star safety rating, according to stakeholders.

The new utility is just the start of LDV’s ambitious model roll-out in Australia. Senior executives have revealed an accompanying ute-based SUV will surface in the not-too-distant future, previewed by the Maxus D90 concept (pictured), from which the LDV ute is expected to borrow its frontal design.

Further afield, LDV will release a full electric version of its V80 van, a Volkswagen Caddy-sized runabout and similarly-minded compact crossover SUV.

The company hopes the model proliferation will net LDV roughly a 17 per cent share of the total commercial market in Australia. That figure includes a 10 per cent share of the booming utility market, or roughly 600 vehicle sales a month.

“We will launch our pick-up next year in July,” an LDV spokesman said through an interpreter.

“It will be built in Shanghai. I think we should have at least 10 per cent of the market share. At least.

“We’re going to bring more and more products, widening our product spectrum to meet local customer choices. Our ute portfolio will cover single-cab, double-cab, diesel engine, gasoline engine, manual transmission, automatic transmission – everything. We will launch this pick-up next month at the Guangzhou auto show.”

LDV has experienced a slow-but-steady climb in sales since launching its first product, the V80 commercial van in 2012, followed by the G10 van in 2015 (which now includes a diesel option). Stakeholders have now targeted a total 10,000 sales combined by the end of 2017.

“The main sales will be the V80 and G10, but the utility or pick-up truck will attract about 1000 or 2000 sales,” a spokesman said, citing the ute’s late arrival for its low proportion of overall 2017 sales.

Australian distributor, Ateco Automotive, is spearheading LDV’s ambitious plan. Ateco boss Neville Crichton tempered SAIC’s sales 2017 targets, but said the brand could grow exponentially in Australia nonetheless.

“This year we’ll do 1600 LDV sales, next year we’ll do somewhere between 3500 to 5000 sales,” a more measured Crichton said. “If we had the ute for the whole year, we probably would achieve those figures [10,000 sales].”

“It will be five-star and it will be competitively priced but not at the bottom of the bucket like some of those other Chinese brands. It doesn’t need to be.

“It will be no different to a (Mitsubishi) Triton or (Ford) Ranger. We will launch the car with a 2.8-litre diesel so we don’t see it a lot difference with the Japanese makes.”

Crichton, who has successfully introduced brands as diverse as Ferrari and Great Wall to Australia in past, already sees some parallels with LDV, and believes it can become a mainstream brand.

“We will be a major player in the commercial market,” he said, citing an expansion to 80 national dealers in 12 months’ time.

“By June next year we will outsell Peugeot and Peugeot’s been here 50 years. We’re not going to be a little brand.”